Entwistle jury will continue deliberating Wednesday

Tuesday

Jun 24, 2008 at 12:01 AMJun 24, 2008 at 12:34 AM

The jury did not reach a verdict today and will continue deliberating Wednesday morning. Earlier in the day, the jury asked the judge to see hard copies of computer internet records from Jan. 20, 2006.

Norman Miller

The jury did not reach a verdict today and will continue deliberating Wednesday morning. Earlier in the day, the jury asked the judge to see hard copies of computer internet records from Jan. 20, 2006.

Prosecutors charge Neil Entwistle is a coldblooded killer who shot and killed his wife and baby and tried to run away to his native England.

But defense lawyer Elliot Weinstein painted Entwistle as someone who only wanted to protect his wife, Rachel's, memory, by hiding the fact that she killed both herself and their infant daughter, Lillian Rose.

Today a jury of six men and six women began to decide which theory is true as they begin deliberations. Prosecutor Michael Fabbri rested the prosecution's case Monday in Middlesex Superior Court. Weinstein did not call any witnesses.

Jurors will have to sift through the testimony of 46 witnesses during the last 12 days and re-examine more than 100 pieces of evidence.

Monday, during closing arguments, Weinstein and Fabbri presented very different versions of what happened on Jan. 20, 2006, in the 6 Cubs Path, Hopkinton, home the Entwistles rented.

Entwistle ran errands that morning and returned home to a horrific scene, Weinstein said.

"Neil found Rachel and Lillian dead," he said. "Neil saw that (the gun) and knew instantly what happened, and in those moments he knew what he had to do."

Instead of calling the police, Entwistle decided to return the gun his wife stole from her parents' Carver home, Weinstein said.

"Foremost, his purpose was to protect Rachel's memory - to protect her honor," he said. "Neil committed to not betraying Rachel's memory. He could not do that to Rachel."

Entwistle returned the gun to Carver and did what he thought was right, return to his parents' home in Worksop, England, Weinstein said.

Investigators erred early in the investigation, Weinstein said. They immediately focused on Entwistle as a suspect, and worked to prove that no one else was involved in the shooting.

However, they ignored the evidence that Rachel Entwistle shot herself and the baby.

Gunshot residue, Weinstein said, was found on both sides of both hands, yet, chemists never tested for gunshot residue on her wrists, her clothing and other areas. No one, he said, told the medical examiner about the test results.

Also, her hands were underneath a pillow, yet they had the residue on them, so it was obvious she was moved after she died, Weinstein said.

Rachel Entwistle's DNA was found on the barrel of the gun, he said. She could not be ruled out as leaving DNA on the black gun case that housed the .22-caliber Colt revolver that shot her, he said. The DNA on the gun case cannot be linked to anyone.

Investigators also never looked into if Rachel was depressed, or possibly suffering from postpartum depression, he said.

Weinstein also hinted that Joanna Gately, a friend of Rachel's who spent the night in her car at the Hopkinton home on Jan. 21, 2006, because the Entwistles missed a dinner date, may have had an inkling something was wrong.

"What logical reason did Joanna have to stay?" he said. "Maybe Rachel confided in her. Joanna's actions were consistent with someone who was concerned with a best friend's state of mind."

Throughout the week prior to the deaths, someone used Entwistle's computer to search out suicide and murder. Weinstein contends that it was Rachel.

He said Entwistle, a computer engineer, could have easily erased that type of information. Although Entwistle frequented pornographic Web sites, that is not uncommon nowadays, Weinstein said.

His actions in the days before the deaths do not suggest murder, he said.

Entwistle, Weinstein said, searched Web sites for travel deals for his parents to fly to the United States for a visit in April 2006. The day Rachel and Lillian were shot, Entwistle went to Starbucks and bought two lattes, one for himself, and one for his wife.

If the murder was planned, why was Entwistle's post-murder plan so disorganized, Weinstein asked. Entwistle had no cash and had to go from ATM to ATM to get money. He had to buy a plane ticket the day after the deaths.

"If Neil had planned and calculated for this day as the prosecutor would lead you to believe, he would not have been utterly unprepared to leave the country," Weinstein said.

Rather than Entwistle committing murder, Weinstein said Rachel held Lillian Rose, lined up the gun to try to shoot herself and Lillian Rose through the heart. When the bullet got lodged in the fatty tissue of her breast, she shot herself in the head.

"Do not misunderstand us," said Weinstein. "No one is blaming Rachel."

Weinstein asked the jury to look at all the evidence no one tried to collect and to find reasonable doubt in that.

"The deaths of Rachel and Lillian are an unimaginable tragedy," said Weinstein. "There is nothing that can be done to bring them back. Please do not compound this tragedy (by convicting Entwistle)."

Prosecutor Fabbri disputed Weinstein's argument that the deaths were a murder/suicide committed by Rachel Entwistle, saying it does not make sense.

"Why would Rachel commit suicide?" he said. "She was back home, she had her home, she had her car, she had her family, and she thought she had a loving husband."

Entwistle had two sides, Fabbri said - the one where everyone thought he was the picture-perfect husband and father - and the other, a man who was disappointed with his sex life and drowning in a sea of debt.

"They want you to think Neil is a loving, caring husband, but they don't want you to think about this being on his person when he was arrested," Fabbri said, holding up a British newspaper advertisement featuring several ads for escorts found in Entwistle's pocket when he was arrested in 2006.

The gunshot residue results are not important, the prosecutor said. Only four particles out of thousands were found on Rachel's hands.

The residue on her hands only proves she was in the same room, close to someone who fired a gun, he said.

"Gunshot residue is a red herring," Fabbri said.

He also challenged the idea that Rachel Entwistle visited Web sites dealing with death by knives. If she had a gun, why would she visit those sites, Fabbri asked jurors.

The manner of the proposed suicide is also hard to believe.

"The whole concept of committing suicide by shooting through another person makes no common sense," Fabbri said.

Entwistle, he said, began searching the adult swingers Web site, Adult Friend Finder, soon after Rachel and Lillian left England in August 2005.

Entwistle sent an e-mail on Jan. 4, 2006, to one woman he found on the Web site saying he was looking for a "bit more fun in the bedroom."

When Scotland Yard officers arrested Entwistle, he had a notebook in his pocket. One page detailed the loss he felt for the deaths of his wife and daughter.

The next page had a detailed plan to sell the story to the highest bidder, saying it was not just a statement, but "enough material for a week," Fabbri said quoting the page Entwistle had written.

Entwistle was failing in the United States, he said. He had no job, he had no friends and no job prospects, and the family was falling further into debt.

"He got to the tipping point," said Fabbri. "His own tipping point and he followed through and murdered his own wife and child."